Lawmakers OK penalties for loitering gang members

Lawmakers OK penalties for loitering gang members


Save Story
Leer en espaƱol

Estimated read time: Less than a minute

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Lawmakers have approved a bill to give communities the ability to designate gang-free zones and force anyone suspected of being a gang member to leave the areas.

Under Senate Bill 16, loitering gang members could be charged with a Class B misdemeanor for refusing to leave a gang-free zone. If any gang member returned to that zone within eight hours of being told by police to leave, they could also be issued a $100 fine.

The bill sponsored by Sen. Jon Greiner, R-Ogden, was approved in the House 56-to-17 on Thursday, despite concerns that the bill would be used for racial profiling.

Gov. Jon Huntsman will now decide whether to sign the bill into law.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Related stories

Most recent Politics stories

Related topics

Politics

STAY IN THE KNOW

Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

KSL Weather Forecast